Would You Like Sides With That?
by KiKi Hayashi
Summary: Yes, I would like an unhealthy amount of pepperoni pizzas, a large Cheese-kun, portions of fluff, some humour and lots and lots of that witch called C.C., please. Oh, and can I have it based in R2? Thanks.
1. A safe house, please?

**Disclaimer****: I do not own Code Geass**

**Thank you Nilie, Rumiglion and Warb for correcting and reading this for me and for always being a constant source of info!**

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**Would you like Sides with that?**

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**Chapter 1 – A safe house, please?**

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It took a month of scouring through the shadiest areas of the slums for C.C. to find Kallen Stadtfeld.

Apparently, Kallen's latest hidey-hole had been discovered by Britannian soldiers and the girl was running for her life. Somehow or another, the Knightmareless pilot thought the warehouse rooftop chasing would supposedly throw the soldiers off her tail, but obviously, the movies Kallen watched were lies and it just made her an easier target to spot. The Britannian helicopter that hovered above her and reported her every move to the pursuers at ground level certainly didn't help ease matters.

Dashing along millions of roof tiles, made slippery by the rain from earlier this morning, Kallen tried to formulate an escape plan.

Soldiers below her, soldiers behind her, helicopter above her, no fancy Knightmare to jump into, no Tamaki to sacrifice as a scapegoat and running out of roofs to run on....

Skirt illegally short, panties most likely flashing all the soldiers at ground level, ripped her last pair of tights...

No, definitely not a good day...

She long-jumped to a nearby rooftop, remembering the lessons from the few times she attended gym class when similar exercises were on the schedule.

She kicked off at one corner of her current rooftop, sailing across the gap and trying to land as best as she could on the adjacent building's tiles. She could have succeeded as well had the roof not been wet, but because that was not the case, her sneakers skid as soon as they touched the slimy tiles.

She crashed onto that roof like a thrown ragdoll and half-rolled across its seagull poop splattered tiles.

She didn't stop her rolling and sliding until she tumbled right off the edge of the roof and plummeted two storeys.

Kallen didn't even have time to think of screaming before she crashed into a surprisingly softer landing than she expected.

There was a squealing of tires as her vision faded into whiteness. She gasped before she dug her way to the surface of this soft white sea.

She was in a truck. An open top truck... filled with pillows.

Kallen blinked, confused. What were the odds of her falling at the same time as a pillow filled truck would drive by and soften her fall?

Possibilities flashed through her head as fast as lightning and ignoring the cuts and gashes she earned from her tumble across the rooftops, she reached down and pulled out her wallet with its hidden knife.

The Britannian soldiers were shouting something as they emerge from alleyways and warehouses to stop the truck. The truck's driver had no care for the soldiers' lives and crashed through the skinny gaps between warehouses like it was a simple racing course in a video game rather than real life.

If the soldiers were screaming curses at the truck then the driver must obviously not be on Britannia's side. Kallen flipped the knife out from her wallet anyway. There were organisations and small criminal gangs out there that would be more than eager to capture her and turn her in for money.

The truck crashed through a warehouse door and knocked over a mountain of boxes, causing them to topple neatly in front of their entrance.

The tires screeched as the driver slammed on the brakes. The tail of the truck swung around and Kallen was nearly chucked right out the back.

A figure clambered out of the driver's side – a girl with huge sunglasses, cap and purple hair twisted girlishly into two braids. The passenger's door kicked open and a man scrambled out, pale faced and starting to puke his lunch on the floor.

Kallen glared at the girl and readied her knife.

Purple-head flicked a braid over her shoulder and eyed the knife with obvious amusement. "Nani? My Honey? A month and you've already forgotten about me?"

"A month?" Kallen questioned, guard still up and feet ready to sprint. Purple-head lowered her sunglasses until they rested at the very tip of her nose and emotionless gold eyes stared back at her. Kallen could recognise those eyes anywhere.

"C.C." Kallen stammered and hissed when C.C. caught hold of her wrists to examine her cuts and grazes.

"Shouldn't we be moving?" the man that was throwing up muttered, face still relatively pale and green, "The boxes won't keep them at bay for long."

"Urabe-san!" Kallen cried as she recognised him under the fake moustache and beret. The man smiled at her before ruffling her hair. Kallen eyed the truck, "Are we escaping by truck again?"

Urabe immediately turned greener, "Er no, I don't think I could stomach another warehouse alleyway weaving with C.C. behind the wheel." He turned to the witch and nodded an apology.

C.C. shrugged and pulled out a bag from the truck.

Minutes later when the Britannian soldiers burst into the warehouse, they found an empty truck of pillows and the area void of wanted criminals.

* * *

"Wouldn't they follow us?" Kallen asked when they were away from the warehouses and waiting for C.C. to pick the door lock of a car open.

Urabe shook his head and grinned, "No, we blasted a hole in the basement of the warehouse. They'll find it and think we escaped into the sewers when in actual fact we put on copies of their uniform, mingled into their search team when they burst in and snuck away in the opposite direction when they weren't looking."

"Whose idea was this?"

"Mine, of course," C.C. said smugly as the door popped open.

They climbed in.

And they sat there.

Waiting.

And waiting…

And waiting…

"Um... C.C.?" Kallen finally prompted from the back seat. Urabe, in the front passenger seat, turned, noted the witch's expression and sank his face into his hands.

"C.C., please... not now." The man groaned. "We could get it later... C.C.! Oi! C.C., GET BACK IN THE CAR RIGHT NOW!"

But C.C. was already sprinting through two traffic lights, causing cars to shriek to a halt all about her and honking horns rather viciously, and towards the Pizza Hut she spotted hundreds of metres from the parked car.

Urabe growled, jumped behind the wheel and quickly started the car to chase after the green-haired demon. "Apparently she lost her entire collection of Cheese-kuns when the soldiers took over our base. She is now even more pizza crazy than before because she believes she must regain all that she lost." Insert a sigh that sounded almost like a father whose daughter had just failed him in the most embarrassing manner. "How does Zero cope with such a woman?" he muttered.

* * *

After two hours of massive detouring (thirty minutes of which was spent unpeeling a pizza-holic from Pizza Hut), they finally pulled into a small cosy apartment complex in the suburbs where Urabe dropped them off before going about disposing of their stolen car.

To Kallen's horror, C.C., now armed with a dozen more pizza coupons than she had before, sauntered through the parking lot without a care in the world of being spotted or recognised.

She hissed at the witch who merely raised an eyebrow and entered the reception like she owned the building.

Kallen growled. They were wanted criminals. How could the witch just walk right into a place like that?! They should use the back door and...

Was that...?

Did she just...?

Kallen blinked at the receptionist who gave her a toothy grin in return.

"You..." Kallen started before her mouth devolved to that of a goldfish and she could only open and close her mouth in shock.

C.C. was checking for mail from one of the mailboxes which covered the expanse of the left wall. Kallen turned to the witch, "This is..."

"A safe zone," C.C. answered monotonously and flicking through a bunch of junk mail, "The entire building is ours. Or mine to be exact. To the outsiders, it looks like a normal apartment building containing maybe too many adults and too little children for a normal apartment population but in reality, every single occupant is a Black Knight in hiding."

"How?" was Kallen's only question as she watched two other Black Knight members wave at her before disappearing into an elevator with arms full of groceries.

The green-haired girl stopped on a letter and ripped it open neatly, "How I gathered them? Well, I found Urabe first. His plan was relatively easy and actually pretty smart. He knew that if he lurked near a Pizza Hut, he'll find me sooner or later. We picked up the majority of the building's occupants that way."

And now Kallen felt strangely dense for having not thought of that plan, so she quickly tried to change the subject. "But how did you manage to get enough money for..."

"Stealing," was C.C.'s one worded reply and the amused smirk on her face told Kallen that the witch knew she was using a diversionary tactic.

"Stealing?"

"Of course," she replied simply, "it took me approximately three days of palming and conning rich idiots and drunkards' fat wallets before I've stolen enough credit cards and IDs to take out ridiculous bank loans."

Kallen spluttered at her, suddenly feeling very sorry for those rich idiots and drunkards.

C.C. tossed her mail into the bin and signalled Kallen to follow her into the elevator. "You will be staying with me."

"EH?! YOU?!"

* * *

Their apartment was positioned at the top left corner of the building and most likely, Kallen guessed, was the largest apartment in the whole block.

The witch walked into the bedroom and flopped onto the bed with unladylike grace whilst Kallen followed and gaped at the floor of the bedroom. The curtains were closed (most likely because C.C. couldn't be bothered opening them this morning) but even without switching on the lights or with the sun illuminating the room, Kallen could see the carpet was littered with empty Pizza boxes.

"That bed is yours," C.C. pointed before she reached up to pull off her purple wig, shaking her green mane loose from its pinned up state and dug through all the rubbish for a buried phone.

Kallen squinted into the shadows of the bedroom and was thankful that her bed was untouched by the pizza boxes. Though finding a route to said bed without stepping on a pizza box would be a challenge.

One would have thought it was impossible to have enough pizzas that a large bedroom such as this one would be cluttered with empty cardboard boxes, but apparently, C.C. was making it her mission to perform every single pizza related task labelled impossible.

C.C. had finished her call with Pizza Hut by the time Kallen managed to toe the boxes aside to clear a patch of the floor to utilise as a stepping stone to her bed.

The witch rolled over to her stomach, picked up her head, got onto her elbows and observed the busty pilot with cat-like eyes. Her feet crossed at the ankles and she swung them lazily up off the bed and back down onto them again like a cat would sway their tail.

"Hmm?" C.C. sounded, feet still swinging. "So you know who he is?"

Kallen froze in her advance to the bed. There was no need to ask which 'he' they were talking about.

"Aa," Kallen forced out of her mouth after a long pause, hoping C.C. would drop the matter. She didn't want to think about it.

But the witch was not going to let her off that easily. "Lelouch... you abandoned him?"

"No, I did not!" she barked back, using the finding of the next spot to put her feet among the rubbish as an excuse to keep her eyes from connecting with C.C.'s.

"Is that so?" C.C. asked and patiently waited for Kallen to crack.

"Okay fine! I did!" Kallen huffed, collapsing on her bed and throwing her pillow at the witch. "Can I get some answers now?"

C.C. merely tossed the pillow back. "Hmm... tonight."

Kallen caught the pillow and whammed it straight back towards the witch. "Why tonight?"

C.C. shrugged, caught and set the pillow down before rolling off the bed, "Because I've always wanted to do this girly talk into the morning thing. Now come, Urabe should be back and my pizza should have arrived."

"Girly-talk into the..." Kallen started and then thought of something more important, "URABE-SAN LIVES WITH US?! IN THE SAME ROOM?!"

"Of course, he and I rank the highest in this lot and it's easier to discuss business if we live closer together." C.C. explained with a flick of her green hair, "Besides, it's a hassle to travel halfway across the building for decently cooked eggs for breakfast."

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END OF CHAPTER 1

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**A relatively boring first chapter. Apologies.**

**All forms of feedback will be muchly welcomed**

**Word prompts are open (Limit to TWO words, please)**

**Updates will NOT be weekly like I did in the past, sorry. I'll try to make it as regular as I can.**

**KiKi Hayashi**

**EDIT: I do not hate Kallen. I really like her in fact. I'm sorry if this chapter portrayed her in a slightly less agreeing light but my reasoning was that she's overwhelmed that this moment in time with too much drama (being a wanted criminal, Black Knights being captured one by one, Zero being Lelouch etc) to be making the wisest decisions at least not long-term ones... Sorry. I'll correct this impression in the next chapter.**


	2. A training trip, please?

**Disclaimer****: I do not own Code Geass**

**For****: ****Skippy Sigmatic**** (who asked for 'Rain') and ****Anime-StarWars-fan-zach**** (who asked for 'Mountain' and 'Black Knight Remnants')**

**Thank you ****Rumiglion****, ****Warb**** and ****Nilie**** for proofreading**

**Just to make it clear, I do NOT hate Kallen. In fact, it's the opposite, I LOVE Kallen and I apologise for writing her so poorly… and for everything that happens to her in this chapter. I don't have a Lelouch to play with (yet) so Kallen will have to do.**

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**Chapter 2 – A training trip, please?**

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The sky was pouring down buckets and they were all shivering cold as well. So, why oh why was C.C. out in the middle of some muddy mountain, soaked to the bone, surrounded by trees and Black Knight remnants without a single slice of pizza in sight? Why was she not curled under a blanket in her cute apartment complex, watching pizza documentaries and munching on pizza instead?

C.C. crossed her arms, sat on a rock and tried to remember why she came on this childish training trip. Why oh why…

She remembered climbing into bed last night and waking up to Kallen's alarm clock (which C.C. smacked with a pillow in hope to hit the snooze button – it took five tries). Then she remembered going back to sleep and her roommates bustling about the apartment very noisily. Oh how C.C. wished she was back in Ashford where the efficiency of Sayoko kept everything organised and peaceful.

Then the next thing she remembered was waking up in a coach, strapped to a chair and Kallen's head ensnared in her arms where Cheese-kun was supposed to be. The redhead was less than happy with being suffocated by C.C.'s chest and had batted at her viciously to be freed (or was it so she could breathe?).

Confused, C.C. remembered freeing the redhead. Then, being just as confused, she was involuntarily forced out of the coach and made to trek up a mountain in nothing more than normal hiking gear and a huge number of Black Knight remnants.

C.C. watched as the team of men tried to struggle up a slippery muddy path then she blinked up to the sky, lashes blinking rapidly as her pupils were pelted with raindrops. "Why am I here?" she droned to nobody in particular.

Urabe took a break from shouting orders to answer her, "You are our temporary leader, it's compulsory that you join us in our training trips."

C.C. lowered her head and observed the man. "Hm? Really? I've never seen Zero participating in this foolishness before." The image of Lelouch trying to climb up the slippery slope, like the one they're currently facing, was as hilarious as it was impossible. "So why should I be here?"

Urabe frowned and waved a hand at the men, "C.C., we're scattered enough already. The men need to learn to work together again and rebuild their confidence."

"Kallen and you should be fine. I could have stayed at home and looked after the leftover units."

"Think of as it as setting an example! The men would be more motivated if their leader joined them in the expedition."

C.C. shivered in her coat and curled on her rock in hope to gather some warmth. "Whatever," She finally muttered, "I better get something from this."

Urabe grinned, "That's my girl. I'll get you some of that special edition pizza you were eyeing up."

She glared at him for treating her like a child and he quickly diverted his attention back to his men who were still trying to scrabble up the slope.

Twenty minutes later, without any indication of success, Urabe finally announced they'll take an alternate path and continue their ascent somewhere else.

* * *

"Who are they?" somebody whispered as binoculars were passed about.

"Britannian soldiers, by the looks of it," somebody else answered then asked a question of his own, "Why are they here in the middle of nowhere?"

"They're guarding that warehouse!" Another gasped quite loudly before being pummelled to the soggy ground for being too loud.

"You'll expose us!" They whispered harshly and the poor flattened man mumbled his apologies.

"Does it matter? Can we just go now?" A random Black Knight at the back complained, "We've been hiking on this bloody mountain for five whole hours! We're all soaked to the bone and I have mud in my pants! Now we're squatting like cavemen behind bushes on some completely irrelevant side-quest! Can we just go home now? And –Oooomph!"

"Good work, Kallen." Urabe nodded and Kallen detached her fist from the complaining Knight's stomach.

"What do you think?" The Holy Sword asked as he passed the binoculars to C.C. who had given up on keeping herself clean and was sitting right in the mud for she was much too lazy to squat. "There are only a few guards and I don't see any cameras."

"Leave them be." C.C. droned, mind too busy dreaming of pepperoni and cheesy crusts. She passed the binoculars on without even taking a look. "I agree with the Complainer-san, it's unimportant. We should just finish this wearisome trip and head home."

"Thank you! At least somebody is sane here!" Complainer-san spluttered from the back.

Urabe pondered, tapping his chin with the binoculars that just returned to his hands. "Kallen?"

Kallen shrugged and joined C.C. in the mud sitting. "I agree with Complainer-san too."

"Then why did you punch me?"

"Because you were loud and if you haven't noticed, they have guns and we don't. I would like to get off this mountain without turning into Swiss cheese, thank you very much."

Urabe continued his chin tapping with the binoculars as his brain did some quick math. "But would it not feel good to steal something valuable from Britannia? Perhaps they're hiding Knightmare frames in there and…"

"Urabe-san," Kallen pointed at the warehouse, "do you really think Britannia would present so little security for something as important as Knightmares?"

"True… but it's important enough that there is some security so I say we steal it."

"Whatever for?"

"If we don't have any use of it, we could sell it." He suggested, hands rubbing at the thought of extra money, "we could finally afford extra heating and maybe even cable TV!"

"But we don't need cable TV!"

"Hmm…. Heating…" somebody whispered at the back.

There was a moment of silence before everybody started whispering what the extra money could get them.

"Better security cameras for the front desk."

"New washing machines."

"New computer equipment."

"New disguises! I'm sick of wearing a pink wig!"

"New beds!"

"The Cheese-kun laptop."

Another moment of silence in which C.C. flicked her wet hair and glared at anybody who dared comment on her choice of new equipment. They needed new computer equipment so why not the Cheese-kun ones? They're yellow, cute and…

"Fine, I guess we need the money," Kallen sighed, successfully interrupting the samba of Cheese-kun's transpiring in C.C.'s mind.

"Good. Let's storm this warehouse!" Urabe announced quietly and everybody started pushing up their sleeves, ready to charge out with reckless abandon and start rioting.

…

…

Thus initiated the third moment of silence of the day - how exactly could they storm out there without getting gunned down?

"Maybe we should charge out. They'll be so surprised that they'll forget about their guns and…"

"We could sneak up from behind!"

"You can't sneak up behind them when their backs are to the warehouse!"

"I suggest using Complainer-san as a scapegoat!"

"Me?!"

"Guys, guys, hush! Not so loud!" Urabe urged.

C.C. rolled her eyes and snatched the binoculars from Urabe's hands. She examined their opponents critically and pulled back with a satisfied smirk. "All men," she concluded and turned to her underlings, "Urabe sneak some men to the other side of the warehouse. We'll attract distract them here at the front and your team could knock them out from behind."

The witch surveyed the muddy group with special interest to the handful of female members that were present. "I need a girl."

Kallen eagerly volunteered with the reasoning that she was the most skilled in combat. Then to everybody's curiosity, C.C. started chuckling with sudden amusement and stripped off her coat before ordering her volunteer to do the same.

Confused, the redhead did so and then she caught the witch's sly smirk. She hurriedly tried to change her choice, "Actually maybe I won't go after all…"

But it was too late. C.C. had already started dragging her out of the bush, voice loud and calling for help.

"Wha?" Kallen could only splutter and then froze on the spot as the Britannian guards lifted their guns and trained them all towards her.

C.C. barged on recklessly, ignoring the way Kallen was left behind, she marched forward and continued her shouts for help. "Help! Oh help please!" Others wondered if it would kill her to put more panic into the words to make it sound more convincing.

"This is a restricted area. All unauthorised…" the guards shouted.

"Help me please!" C.C. shouted (much like a broken record) and slipped convincingly on the mud to fall flat on her face.

The guards faltered, it was only two girls, obviously unarmed…and…

C.C. groaned in the mud and the guards' resolve crumbled into nothing. What could a girl in such a pitiful state do?

Cautiously, the soldiers inched forward, eyes scanning the surrounding area like hawks.

The witch lifted her face from the mud and started to wipe the brown substance from her eyes so that she could see. Kallen, on the other hand, was still rooted to her spot, her body ready to spring to grab C.C. from the mud and make a run for it if required.

But C.C.'s pitiful sight in the mud finally caught enough sympathy for one of the guards to extend a hand to help her up.

"Are you okay, Miss?"

C.C. made a big fuss of slowly getting up, "We were lost and then there was a bear and…"

"BEAR?!" Kallen cried incredulously and immediately tried to correct her outburst. If she could convince everyone in Ashford that she was a sickly girl then she could convince a few men that she was chased by a bear! "Yes, bear! It chased us and…and…"

The guards gathered about them. Now, if only they could keep their attentions with them to allow those sneaking from behind a chance to attack…

C.C. spun on her heel and walked straight into Kallen's arms, eyes dancing so mischievously that the redhead was suddenly compelled to leave everything and make a dash.

The corner of their eyes registered Urabe's men all in their places, hidden among the bushes and ready for action.

"Kallen," C.C. whispered and the redhead returned her focus to the witch in her arms.

"What?" she snapped back.

"Open. Mouth. Now."

"Wha-OW!!!" she cried as the witch's hands grabbing fistfuls of Kallen's red hair and then…

C.C.'s mouth locked onto hers.

The entire world stood still.

The guards stared and the Black Knights stared.

And stared.

…

And stared.

How could they not? Two girls, no scratch that, two _hot_ girls, no that won't do either, two _hot_ and _muddy_ girls with clothes _clinging_ to their skin, making out in the rain…well maybe only one was doing all the work, the other kind of stood there in shock… but yes, how could they not stare?! It was sexy and it was such an unexpected scene to find in the middle of a wet boring day.

Urabe dropped his binoculars and all his men that were supposed to sneak attack the guards and were halfway out to do their jobs, promptly forgot everything else to gape at the sight of C.C. and Kallen.

Perhaps many others would want to be in Kallen's position right now, but to Kallen, the exchange tasted like mud. Perhaps it was mud, considering the witch's recent activities. If Kallen was asked to throw a dart at a board of adjectives ranging from incredulous to befuddled in order to describe the raging tango of emotions in her head right now, the redhead wouldn't even be able to grip the said dart, much less throw it.

"KYAAAH!!!" Kallen finally shrieked when her brain finally unfroze from shock and she achieved in striking every single emotion depicted in her mental dartboard. She shoved the witch like she was a demon then proceeded to spit and gag, "Oh dear god! You just… you just KISSED ME!"

She pointed an accusing finger at the witch only to find her not in the spot she left her. In fact, the witch was smashing a knee into the face of bent double guard and setting to work what the Black Knights were suppose to do – knock out the guards.

The guards, for their credit, were quick to snap back into action, raising their guns and started firing by the time C.C. clonked out the second guard.

She barely managed to dodge the first few bullets before Kallen shot like a red rocket into the midst of the distracted soldiers and proceeded to show exactly why she was so high ranked among the Black Knights.

Minutes later, Kallen, heaving and gasping from the sudden exercise of taking down fully trained soldiers, busied herself by shoving the witch back into the mud. She bunched C.C,'s collar in her hands and shook her frantically. "You kissed me! I can't believe it! You kissed me?!"

C.C. laughed, "Hm? You sound like you don't like it."

"Of course, I don't like it!"

"I apologise for being a bad kisser then."

Kallen was not to be consoled by that apology it seemed, instead she just shook C.C. harder, "Could you not have thought of something better?! Something else to distract the soldiers with?! Something-"

She was finally silenced by Urabe draping her coat back over her shoulders. "Urabe-san?"

"I think that's enough, Kallen," the Holy Sword said, "I'm sure C.C. understands she shouldn't have kis-used such a diversionary tactic."

C.C., who was still in the mud, merely rolled her eyes as if challenging them to think up equally brilliant tactics within the same time-span she had available.

"Besides, Kallen," Urabe continued, now looking away, "Your straddling of C.C. in the mud to beat her up isn't helping the image especially after the kiss…"

The pilot bolted to her feet with a scream and jumped away from C.C. faster than the eye could blink, flushing red from both embarrassment and anger.

For the rest of the trip, Kallen Stadtfeld stayed very far away from the C.C. the witch. Scowling and glaring at anybody who dared looked her way.

And when they opened the warehouse?

"I GOT KISSED FOR A HUNDRED CRATES OF PARACHUTES?!"

* * *

END OF CHAPTER 2

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**I hope I didn't scare people away -.-**

**Anonymous**: Uwaaah! (sparkles) Anonymous-san! You're back. This could be considered a continuation or a new continuity! Both way works… I think because I believe the chapters are disconnected and one-shot enough to make it work. Thank for reading my work again!

**KiKi Hayashi**


	3. Some lessons learnt, please?

**Disclaimer: I do not own Code Geass**

**For: Franchise who would like some room-mate antics and I'm ashamed for him you so few of it here (bows repeatedly)**

**Thank you Nilie and Rumiglion for beta-ing and for pointing out and changing so many mistakes of mine. Thank you Warb-dono for giving me the Aomori tip!**

* * *

**Chapter 3 – Some lessons learnt, please?**

* * *

_It should be quite expected that being stuck with another being for 365 days would force you to learn at least something of or about that being. So began the 365 days of Black Knights observation…_

_The first lesson that everyone learnt was that one must never deprave a witch of her pizza because she would not make life easy for you._

* * *

"Where's my pizza?" C.C. asked as she stepped out of the elevator to find the reception devoid of any sign of the Pizza Hut delivery boy or fresh pizza boxes.

The receptionist looked up from what he was working on and answered firmly, "You can't have any."

C.C. blinked at him as if waiting for him say something else - Something like 'I'm sorry, C.C.-san, here's your pizza and your complimentary Cheese-kun figurine for being such a loyal Pizza Hut fan'.

Unnerved, the receptionist did his best to blink back at her with the same blank stare but instead watched as his bravado crumbled (which was directly proportional to the rising dread in his heart) as C.C. settled in one of the armchairs at the corner of the room and waited and waited.

Ten minutes later and still no sign of pizza, C.C. sighed and disappeared calmly back into the elevator.

Two hours later, she handed Urabe a pile of documents.

"Budget cut?! But we're…" Urabe spluttered, gaping at the documents in front of him in hopes that staring at it long enough will change the minus sign in the budget column to a plus.

It took ten budget cuts for the Black Knights to learn this lesson.

* * *

_In addition to this, Urabe learnt that C.C. must not to be woken until she felt like getting up herself and Kallen was to be woken before noon or else she'll be cranky all day for having felt she wasted half the day already._

_He also learnt that Kallen enjoys eggs with Worchester sauce and that not everybody liked their eggs with maple syrup like himself._

* * *

"Try it, this is the nectar of the heavens!" he encouraged, pushing the plates of eggs drowned in maple syrup towards his two roommates seated at the other end of the table.

Kallen looked longingly at her Worchester sauce bottle imprisoned in Urabe's hands and will remain trapped there until she tried this goopy mess he called food. C.C., beside her, yawned loudly and snuggled her large Cheese-kun plushie in her lap, eyes drooping and half falling asleep where she sat. She had stayed up watching the Cheese-kun the Animated Series marathon and had she not been so hungry she wouldn't even be seen out of bed.

Urabe dug into his own maple syrup covered eggs hungrily as if the sight of him eating it would urge his roommates to do the same.

Kallen stared at her plate before nudging C.C. in the ribs to keep her awake and also to stop her dozing head from landing in her own plate of syrupy eggs.

The witch twitched from the nudge, blinked blearily and did another yawn that was accompanied by a stomach growl. C.C. rubbed her eyes and finally, as if too hungry to complain, she shovelled the syrupy contents of her plate straight into her mouth, chewed and gulped almost happily.

Kallen watched the witch intently.

Three, two, one…

C.C. pushed back from the table and tottered back to bed, yawning widely. Without a word, Kallen followed and watched as C.C. collapsed into the nearest bed (Kallen's) and was away to dream-land within a second.

The ace pilot came back to the table and demanded for her Worchester sauce.

"It's not poisonous!" Urabe complained, "She was just too tired and fell asleep!"

"Suuuuure." Kallen drawled.

* * *

_Kallen learnt that Urabe and the rest of the Black Knights are taking this whole 'brother/guardian/father' role too seriously for her liking._

* * *

"We have to study?!" she cried incredulously as Urabe placed a heap of textbooks in front of them. The rest of the Black Knights that were close to her age also echoed her cry when they were assembled.

Urabe nodded. "Our rebellion is important but we must think of the future of our members as well. Frankly, you kids should be in school, pestering teachers and throwing spit-balls at each other rather than hiding with us and taking on such dangerous missions. But you're here and…"

"Why do we have to study?!" the 'kids' whined.

"It's for your own good!" Urabe argued, "C.C. agreed to put aside part of our budget for your education and that you could use the empty room on the third floor as a study area as long as you don't let missions interfere with your homework and…"

Kallen put up a hand and Urabe paused at the sight of her ticked off expression, "C.C. allowed you? You mean she's not taking part in this? Urabe-san, without question, look-wise, she is one of our youngest members."

The others agreed with fervent nods of their heads.

"Actually she will be taking part in this…" Urabe gulped and started regretting taking on the task of informing these 'kids' of the news. He rummaged his pockets and pulled out a list, "you'll be learning mostly by yourself through textbooks but if you have any problems, here is a list of people that you can consult for help and…"

Urabe's voice faltered so Kallen snatched the scrap of paper from his hands. "C.C.?! FOR HISTORY?! You have got to be kidding me. She's not a student but an instructor?!"

* * *

_The young knights learnt that C.C.'s knowledge of history was, though slightly distorted from what the textbooks said, immaculate and if you slipped her your pizza coupons under the table, she'll be more than willing to skip the boring bits and move onto the interesting ones._

_Kallen also learnt that Urabe was an excellent teacher in cooking and could whip up five-star hotel quality cakes if you gave him the chance. Needless to say, because of this the Holy Sword became a favourite of all the female knights._

* * *

"Urabe-san, the cake you made the other day was delicious! Please accept this as a gift of thanks!"

"Urabe-san, where did you learn to cook? Your baked Alaska is heavenly! I wish I could cook like you!"

"Urabe-san, we all love that banoffee tart you made! It was truly the yummiest thing we've ever tasted! So we made you an apron as thanks!"

* * *

_Cooking genius he may be but seamstress he was not. His lack of skills was displayed when his gift apron was accidentally torn in an argument between C.C. and Kallen over who gets to shower first._

* * *

Kallen tried very hard not to snigger at the mess that Urabe called a solution to his torn apron. The stitches were horrid and uneven, there were threads hanging loose and gaps as big as coins in the stitched up tear. It was only the sight of his tired and haggard face and the bandages about his fingers that refrained Kallen from laughing.

* * *

_It turned out (as Kallen and Urabe later learnt) that C.C. wasn't just a genius at pizza-consuming and dabbling with illegal business but was also a genius when equipped with some thread and needles._

* * *

"My apron!" Urabe gasped when the witch shoved the mended article in his face, "It's… it's…"

"Fixed," C.C. finished for him and started to pack away her mending kit.

"You can sew?" He asked, still staring at the apron in awe.

She shrugged, "I was a seamstress at some point of my life - it made a good living."

"A seamstress? I thought you said you were a teacher, farmhand and an archaeologist!"

"Those too."

Urabe tried not to wonder how she could be all those in such a short life. Surely she must be lying... but how would that explain all her skills? "Is there anything you can't do?!"

She yawned and climbed into the sofa, sprawling comfortably across it like a large cat. "I have the ability to do almost anything but just choose to let others do it for me."

"You mean you can even cook?"

"Of course," C.C. paused and then continued, "but it doesn't mean I'll do it. Somebody has to keep you and your soldiers from turning rusty."

"But…" he managed to start but C.C.'s attention was already on the TV. In the end, Urabe smiled his thanks and folded up his mended apron, "I'll make you an extra large pizza tonight."

"Of course, you didn't expect me to mend your apron for free did you?"

* * *

_C.C.'s skills with the needle were undeniable, even those who made Urabe his apron in the first place could not help but admire her work. C.C., however, was immune to their compliments and flattery and quickly regained her title of 'witch' after successfully getting on everyone's nerves within a week._

_Though nobody suffered as much as Urabe and Kallen did…_

* * *

Urabe groaned and tried to stuff his pillow into his ears in hopes of drowning out Kallen and C.C.'s voices from the bedroom next door.

"That was my pillow!" Kallen's voice snapped.

"It was on my bed." C.C.'s voice droned followed by what sounds like Kallen smacking something at the witch. The 'something' Kallen used turned out to be C.C.'s oversized Cheese-kun, it seemed - at least judging from the incredulous gasp that the witch just made. To be hurt by her precious Cheese-kun, oh the horror…

So she retaliated in the only way she could.

Kallen growled, "You did not just hit me with my own pillow!"

"And if I did?"

Urabe gave up trying to insert his pillow into his ear canals and got out of bed. The stupid girls are going wake up the entire block one night.

He marched out of his room and into the girls', caught each of their heads in each of his hands and put on his best tired face. "Can we please have a week without requiring me to climb out of bed multiple times in one night just to shut you up?"

"She started it," Kallen huffed and C.C. droned.

The blue-haired man massaged his temples, praying for patience. How on earth did Zero, who he recently was informed was a young man named Lelouch, deal with these two girls? In fact, how could a boy of Ze-no-Lelouch's age deal with a pizza demon like C.C. and still get enough sleep to take on school and still manage a rebellion so effortlessly?

"Can I please," he dragged out the 'please' for effect and to let them know that he's immensely tired.

* * *

_C.C. and Kallen had learnt to gauge Urabe's tiredness at night by how much stress he puts into his words. If he drags it out for two seconds, he's moderately tired. If he drags it out for three, he's very tired. Three seconds followed by a two second pause signifies desperately tired and anything longer meant there would be no nice breakfast the next morning._

* * *

"Please just have a night's sleep without any more interruptions?"

Kallen and C.C. shared a glance. Three second 'please' with no pause… what category was that? Should they risk it by prolonging their argument? Is pride more important than a decent breakfast?

Breakfast or pride, the two choices hung in the air, waiting to be chosen and to kick the other choice into a lawless world to be devoured and forgotten for eternity.

The clock ticked as seconds rolled by.

Finally, the two girls shrugged and drifted back to their respective beds, crawling peacefully under the covers. Urabe smiled gratefully and trudged back to his own bedroom where he collapsed into bed, asleep before his face even touched the pillow.

* * *

_Everybody in the safe house always wondered how Urabe could tolerate living in the same room as Kallen and C.C…. well, Kallen on her own would have been fine but C.C. on the other hand was demanding and a nightmare to all who were under her leadership – mainly because she insisted they do all her dirty work whilst she does nothing but feast on pizza._

_It gave them great amusement to find something that they could best C.C. in and the louder and party-loving members of the Black Knight remnants soon learned that alcohol tolerance was not one of the things anybody could beat C.C. in._

* * *

Their door slammed opened and the men blinked at their new addition with curious eyes. C.C., with her usual Cheese-kun tucked under her arm, stared back at them.

"Your party last night," she started until somebody corrected her.

"Poker game night," he supplied as if offended.

C.C. waved the words aside impatiently, "Your partying was disturbing me."

Well to be accurate, it was disturbing every single Black Knight except for those that were doing the partying but C.C. did not like to give off the impression that she cared about them. Usually, C.C. would just send Kallen or Urabe down to deal with these party idiots but, unfortunately, Kallen was out hunting down some more Black Knights Remnants and it was a choice between dealing with the plumbing problem upstairs or dealing with these party animals.

Frankly, C.C. would just let Urabe handle both these men and the plumbing but the stench of hallways upstairs was enough to drive even her immortal nostrils away for refuge downstairs. Then Urabe said something about a giant pizza for dinner tonight…

She adjusted her hold of her Cheese-kun, balancing him like a mother balancing a toddler on her hip. "Is it really necessary to party day and night non-stop?"

"Well," A young man started, holding up his fingers as he started to count, "there's Poker Monday, Beer Tuesday, Wrestling Wednesday, Beer Thursday, Party Friday and Beer Saturday. In fact, Urabe-san already talked to us about this. We've toned it all down already!" He conveniently omitted out the minor detail of Kallen also having shouted at them (multiple times) about the same thing. Toned down their partying, yes they have. They made sure that they partied less for two days before returning to their usual pace.

The witch was not amused and they quickly tried to change the topic by offering her enough alcohol so that she'll be too drunk to tell them off or, even worse, kick them out of the sanctuary of the safe house.

C.C. stared at the bottle of beer that was shoved in her hand as the men about her cheered for her to drink. So this was the reason Urabe came back drunk after his trips down here.

She rolled her pupils to the corner of her eyes and regarded them with a deliciously sly expression, beer bottle dangling between her fingertips. "If," she started, cocking her hip to one side and gained their complete attention. "If I can out-drink all of you…"

The men scoffed at her with howls of laughter but she went on unhurriedly and with utmost confidence, "If I can out drink every single one of you combined, how about we settle for only two days of partying and five of silence?"

A young girl of C.C.'s size? Out-drink a dozen grown men? Nonsense!

"C.C.-san," an amused young man laughed, "out-drink us all? Honestly, it'll be highly unfair for you…"

"Oh, I insist." She smirked and as if to prove it, she tipped the bottle up to her mouth and downed it like it was nothing but water. "Shall we begin?" she said and slid into a chair effortlessly.

* * *

_It was an undisputed opinion that C.C. was a witch and could easily rank amongst the evilest of them all. The fact that she carried about an oversized yellow blob called Cheese-kun does not help persuade the Knights otherwise, for, innocent though the witch appeared with the plushie, it only enhanced C.C.'s evilness when she seats it on her lap and stroke it like a villain would stroke a Persian cat._

* * *

"What have you done?!" Urabe cried aghast at the bodies lying in prone on the floor and at the several men throwing up in the bathroom. He had been expecting to barge into the room and find C.C. completely at the mercy of his men and was fully prepared assume the role of the knight in shining armour and rescue her – you couldn't blame him, she looked so small compared to every other occupant of this room.

Instead he found C.C. lying in the armchair, legs dangling over the armrest and hands fiddling with a TV remote with men discarded about the floor like rubbish. She wrinkled her nose distastefully, "The plumbing?"

"Fixed but third floor will smell funny until we clean the carpet." Urabe answered, toeing the nearest unconscious man with his foot. He disagreed with their noise levels but they were still his comrades. How could he face Zero if he allowed C.C. to murder half the team without his intervention? "What have you done?" he asked again.

"Nothing much, I just downed more beer than all of them combined."

"BEER?! You went on a drinking match with them?!" He was suddenly worried. Would Ze-Lelouch forgive him if he allowed his most trusted ally and lover to be bullied by twelve grown men?

C.C. continued to fiddle with the TV remote. "Urabe, do I look drunk to you?"

"No…. so you won?"

"Of course."

He should have guessed. C.C.? Being bullied? Impossible! It is more likely to be the other way round – with C.C. doing the bullying.

"How long have they been like this?!"

The green-haired girl played with her plushie's hat innocently as she answered smoothly, without a hint of guilt or hesitation, "Maybe a few hours."

Urabe gave her a look of disbelief and moved to unpeel the men from the floor and back to their beds.

"Bring them here," C.C. ordered suddenly, getting out of her chair and stalking to the bathroom. Urabe, with some helpers, dragged them all into the tiny room where C.C. unhooked the shower head and without warning, blasted icy water into the drunken men's faces.

There were mass spluttering and confused cries of shock before C.C. shut the water off and perched on the rim of the bathtub, Cheese-kun in between her hands and fingers playing with the doll's hat. She peered at the thoroughly soaked men. "Clean up this room and remember, only two days of parties." She moved to exit the bathroom, "And if you have more than two days of parties or if your noise levels disturb me again, you will rest assured that you'll never face a promotion ever again. Oh and clean the carpet on the third floor."

And she walked off with Cheese-kun's face peeking over her shoulder, giving everyone she left behind an evil eye.

* * *

_Cheese-kun was evil. That was the one of the important lessons they all learnt and since Cheese-kun was the minion then thus, according to logic, his master would be even more villainous. This theory held true -very true – for all 365 days and more._

* * *

"Urabe," C.C. said in a voice that was not to be refused, "pick up my pizza from the reception. It should have arrived by now."

He frowned deeply in response, "C.C., you had five already…"

The girl tilted her head back and stared at him upside down. Two seconds of her unwavering gaze finally made Urabe groaned and quickly went and did as told. C.C. went back to what she was doing once more.

"Now, Kallen, will you wear the bunny suit or not?"

Opposite her, Kallen struggled angrily in her chair where she was tied to. She shook her head wildly to convey her absolute disgust of the idea. "I said no! Now untie me!"

C.C. sighed and pulled out a sheet of paper, "See this, Kallen?"

Kallen glared daggers at the page, reading it quickly and with increasing horrification. "This is…"

"Yes, it's a verification document and yes, I do believe those are your fingerprints at the bottom." C.C. remarked and dangled the page in the air daintily, "Of course, your signature would have looked nicer on the dotted line but it's not something I could steal as easily. Fingerprinting is old-fashioned but simple enough to do when your victim is asleep."

If looks could have killed, even C.C.'s infinite lives could not protect her from Kallen's glare.

"Wear the bunny suit and I'll destroy this document and your involvement of the Aomori incident will be completely wiped."

Kallen continued her glaring without turning down the killing wattage.

Three quarters of an hour later, she raised an eyebrow as if saying 'Really?'

C.C. laughed and stroked her Cheese-kun's head like it was villainous feline on her lap, "Of course."

* * *

END OF CHAPTER 3

* * *

**Lunattik** – Thanks for reading and reviewing. Only C.C. would have done? I think Milly wouldn't mind kissing a few other characters either (chuckles)

**KiKi Hayashi**


	4. Some breakfast, please?

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Code Geass.

**Thank you, Rumig-kun for beta-reading this for me especially when he was so busy.**

**SETTING: The morning after Babel Tower. First morning in Chinese Federation Consulate.**

* * *

**Chapter 4 – Some breakfast, please?**

* * *

It was the sudden lack of warmth that awakened the sleeping C.C. As she yawned widely, she opened her eyes to find that the sudden blast of coldness was caused by part of her blanket having fallen to the floor. When did she get the blanket anyways?

She glanced about the dark room and found Kallen curled up on the opposite sofa. The redhead must have covered her with a blanket after she fell asleep.

Stretching her arms and legs uncomfortably, she squinted at the clock.

"Why are you up so early?" Kallen's sleepy voice croaked.

"I slept early," C.C. answered, swinging her legs off her chair and trying to find her shoes – she should really start to cut the habit of abandoning her clothes on the floor when there was no Lelouch to tidy them for her.

By the time C.C. realized the futility in her shoe-digging quest and decided to go barefoot, Kallen had already rolled over and was drifting back to sleep.

"Bring me back breakfast," the pilot mumbled into a cushion as C.C. tried to smooth the wrinkles from her black dress.

"I'm not your servant."

WHAP

"And throwing your cushion at me won't turn me into your servant."

Kallen groaned. All she wanted was breakfast and a few more minutes of sleep. How did Lelouch put up with having C.C. in his room for so long? "Please, C.C.?"

"Fine," said C.C. as she left the room.

Kallen curled under her blanket and muttered darkly, "She could have at least thrown me back my cushion before she left."

* * *

It took her a few tries before she found the kitchen and the large dining room that accompanied it. By the time she did find it, her attention was drawn completely to the kitchen and the possibility of finally getting breakfast that she forgot the position of her foot.

She barely had time to register her foot meeting thin air and not solid flooring before she was crashing and tumbling down the flight of stairs she was on.

Tumble, tumble, tumble, the world spinning and 'BANG!' She hit the doorframe of the kitchen.

"Ow," she hissed as her eyes tried to stop spinning and refocus.

"Are you hurt?" Somebody asked and seeing the lack of response, he tried again. Her only answer was to reach up and clutch her head, as if trying to stop it from rolling off her shoulders. Thinking that she didn't understand him, he repeated the question again in Chinese.

Hearing the change of language brought images of a white haired boy to her mind, so she glanced at him dizzily, "Mao?"

No, not Mao, this stranger has black hair so she tried again, "Lelo-"

The fuzziness disappeared from her sight, the world stopped spinning and she noticed that the stranger's hair was considerably longer than her own. "-ko?" she finished.

"Luluko?" The stranger repeated and knelt by her side. "Is that your name?"

"No, no it's not." Her head stopped pounding and she could feel her healing powers kicking in as the aching gradually began to fade away. She stared up at the young man by her side and couldn't stop her eyes from travelling down that waterfall of hair that was attached to the man's scalp. It was rather rude to stare at it for so long but she couldn't help it – it was not every day that she met somebody with longer hair than hers, much less a man.

Plus, she never really cared much about manners anyway - such bothersome things they are.

"Are you hurt?" he asked again, examining her for injuries and raising an eyebrow at her bare feet. "Can you walk?"

"My foot hurts." They both gazed down her legs and stared at the swollen pink flesh that was her right ankle. She lifted the injured limb with a wince, bent her knee and brought the ankle closer to her for inspection. "Go fetch me some ice and something to wrap it in."

When he failed to budge from the spot and only raised an eyebrow as if not believing that the little girl in front of him was actually ordering him around, she added, "I'm sorry but I don't speak eyebrow so you'll just have to voice your displeasure."

"Me?" he said, again in a tone that hints disbelief.

"Surely, you must not be expecting an injured girl to go for ice and first aid on a broken ankle."

"Hmph," he grunted, then got up and stalked into the kitchen where he borrowed a pack of frozen peas and a tea towel.

She was already on her feet and hobbling towards the counter to fetch breakfast by the time he returned.

"Seems like you're doing fine without them," he said and was leaving to return the things he borrowed as she snatched them from his hands, plopped to the floor right in front of him and started wrapping the pack of peas to her pink ankle with the tea towel.

C.C. sighed as the soothing coldness flowed through her feet. It really wasn't necessary for it to be wrapped. Her foot was mostly healed already, but it was better to cover it to avoid any suspicions about her swift recovery.

When she finished, he was studying at her curiously. "You're…"

"You're too young for me if you're thinking of ending that sentence with 'the girl of my dreams'," she joked in her monotone as she got up on her feet again, making a big fuss on leaning against the counter to support most her weight.

He 'hmph'-ed and ignored her joke, "You're the woman who is closest to Zero."

The witch laughed, "Such an interesting man, you are. You appear stuffy, grumpy and serious yet you eavesdrop like a high school student. "

He wrinkled his nose at being called a high school student and it made C.C. realise exactly how tall the fellow was. "What are you looking at?" he demanded when he finally found her staring too rude.

"Oh nothing," she flicked her eyes up to the top of his head and then as if tracing a line from his eyes, she looked down and stared at her own chest contemplatively, "I'm only wondering whether or not if a man of your height could look right down my top if the neckline of my dress was lower and looser."

He barely held back a splutter and C.C.'s mind practically twinkled. It was not often that she found a being so reluctant to respond to her teases. This young man will just have to do until Lelouch decides to show his face to her again.

He shrugged off her laughter and her teasing with another 'hmph' and tried to change the subject by introducing himself, "Li XingKe."

"Aa, so you're the one who didn't allow my pizza delivery through the gate last night."

"You were the one who ordered it?"

"A problem?"

"Ten boxes of pizza? All for yourself?" there goes those eyebrows again. Up, up and into the hair with disbelief and eyes darting to her waist, silently inquiring as to how such a small stomach can contain so many pizzas.

"Again, a problem?" And since he liked to speak eyebrow so very much, she joined in by lifting her own eyebrows to demand an explanation as to why he blocked her pizzas' access to the building. "In fact, if you have let the delivery guy through, I would have obtained enough pizza coupons to get the Cheese-kun slippers. If I had that, I wouldn't have to stand on this cold floor with nothing but my bare feet."

Thus a glaring match ensued.

"Ten pizzas?" Asked the man.

"Ten pizzas," confirmed the girl.

Minutes later, her breakfast arrived and they both broke their glaring match with a silent agreement of a tie.

"Your breakfast, miss."

"Thank you. Now give it to this gentleman. He'll carry the tray to my room for me."

"What?" Li XingKe hissed and the assistant that brought the tray of food started to look scared and was trying to inch himself away from the counter and behind some boxes for safety.

"Ara, surely you're not expecting an injured woman to carry such a heavy tray of food by herself," she reasoned, already hobbling away to the door. She flicked her hair and peered haughtily over her shoulder. "Well? Are you coming or not? My room-mate is not very patient when hungry."

* * *

Kallen woke up to the sound of the doors swishing open.

"Thank you, this far would be enough." C.C.'s voice explained and there was the sound of plates shuffling on a tray. C.C. sounded a dramatic sigh then with a voice that was both amused and rather impatient said, "kindly let go of the tray."

The next voice that joined in was not one Kallen recognised so she lifted her head squinted at the semi-transparent screen that sits between the door and the rest of the room. "Following your previous logic, I should carry it into the room for you."

Kallen was instantly alert and awake. Into the room?! Then he'll know that Zero isn't here and…

She rolled out of the sofa she was curled in, shivering once from leaving the lovely warmth of her blanket and leapt for the Zero costume that was draped at the back of an armchair. Her fingers scrambled on the mask frantically, trying to open it before the guest realized their feint.

C.C. stepped in front of the man before he could take a step and peered up at him through her bangs, changing her usual blank expression into one of coyness. "Now now, we have only just met, Li-san. It is not appropriate for you to enter a lady's chambers when we barely know each other."

Then she chuckled, yanked the tray from his hands, stepped back and closed the doors at his flabbergasted face.

Kallen let out a breath of relief and dropped the mask in her hands as C.C. locked the doors and made her way to the coffee table. "Who was that and what have you done to your foot?"

"Nothing is wrong with my foot."

"Then how com-"

"How else was I supposed to get a handsome stoic man to carry our breakfast for us?" C.C. replied simply and started lifting the plates from the tray.

Kallen rolled her eyes and moved to take her plate but paused, eyes staring at her breakfast and then up at C.C.. "C.C., this is…"

"It really doesn't taste that bad, you know." And they started into their breakfast of eggs and maple syrup.

* * *

END OF CHAPTER 4

* * *

**Scorch**: Dogs and the little park-boy again, kay. Will do. Thanks

**Sarahkawai17**: *splutters* no, no, no. Not best fanfic writer! No! *blushes brightly* You flatter me too much. I am unworthy of such words but I thank you for liking my story so much.

**Adellia**: Uwah! Why is every review making me blush?! I glad you like my work and am ridiculously happy over your adorable and lovely review even though I feel very unworthy of it. Hearing that you find the characters in character is the best praise a fanfic author can get. Thank you, I hope I shall continue to entertain you with more updates and work.

**LunAttik**: Nope, still a good couple more to come.

**KiKi Hayashi**


	5. A corridor blocked, please?

**Disclaimer**: I, KiKi Hayashi, order you to…. Wait, wrong script. I do not own Code Geass.

**Thanks**: Adorable and super cute and overworked Rumig-kun (applause everybody, please!)

* * *

**Chapter 5 – A corridor blocked, please?**

**SETTING:** R2 Turn 3- After execution announcement

* * *

"C.C.!" Kallen gasped, hands holding onto the towel that wrapped around her body, and barged into the room they shared in the Chinese Federation Consulate.

The witch paused from flipping through her magazine and looked up at her calmly, "Yes, Kallen?"

"They're going to execute…" Kallen started but was cut short when C.C. returned back to reading her magazine. "Do you not care about them? They are our comrades! Ougi-san, Toudou-san and…"

"Calm down, Kallen," C.C. droned, scrunching her brows slightly as she tried to focus on the magazine, "I'm out of practice in reading Chinese and it's hard enough to concentrate as it is without your screaming."

Suddenly, the Chinese magazine was snatched from her hands and tossed across the room. Kallen caught the witch's shoulders and glared at her. "They are getting executed tomorrow. Do you really think this is the time to be sitting here reading some random magazine you found lying around?"

"Yes," answered C.C. and Kallen had to restrain from strangling the girl in frustration. The redhead grunted and stomped out of the room to return to the bathroom where her clothes were left.

C.C. watched her leave then retrieved her magazine and followed Kallen, reading the magazine as she walked.

"Where are you going?" The witch asked, flipping through to the entertainment section.

"To the bathroom, I can't run around assembling a squad to storm the prisons and free our comrades wearing only a towel! I have to change into my normal clothes!"

They ducked around a corner to hide from the view of passing Black Knights who were, no doubt, rushing towards C.C. and Kallen's room to approach them about the same thing Kallen approached C.C. about.

"Why are you hiding?" Kallen hissed and tried to shove the smaller girl out of the corner so that she could take responsibility as a leader for once.

"Why are you hiding then?" C.C. countered.

"Because it's embarrassing being seen wearing nothing but a towel!"

"Hn? You weren't embarrassed about it earlier when you were watching the execution announcement on TV with the others."

The pilot blushed, "That was different. It was an urgent matter. Now, get out there and start gathering the men. If we storm the prisons now, we might be able to rescue the others."

C.C. stopped reading her magazine long enough to stare up in the air as if in deep thought. "No, too much effort," she finally concluded and returned to reading that blasted magazine.

Again, Kallen snatched the magazine from her hands and threw it, in a displeased and disgusted manner, on the floor. "Can you not act responsibly for once? Our men are worried here and if either of us just gives the word, they would gladly take up arms and we could be breaking our friends out of jail cells this very instant."

She spun on her heel and continued her way to the bathroom, leaving C.C. to stoop, pick up the magazine and tail her once again.

"Stop following me!"

"Ara, but if I don't then who else would protect you from the perverts who might decide to take advantage of you when you're so scantily dressed?"

"I can protect myself! Go do something useful," Kallen cried, exasperated and almost cried out in relief as she finally reached the bathroom. At least now she will have the bathroom door between her and the witch and she could probably control herself from trying to murder C.C. with her bare hands. How can just one girl be so frustrating?!

Once inside, she splashed her face with cold water and tried to calm herself down as she slowly got dressed.

Why was C.C. so unwilling to work? Why was she so lazy? Does eating pizza twenty-four seven transform people into emotionless little dolls? Where does it all go anyway? How many calories were in a pizza? How can she stay so small? Why was she thinking about C.C. and pizzas when she should be thinking of ways of breaking her friends out of jail?

She splashed more water on her face and finished getting dressed.

Why would C.C. not act more like a leader? Is it because now that Lelouch came back, she thinks she have officially wash her hands on this entire business and could return to her previous role of a position-less freeloader?

Wait… Lelouch?

Lelouch!

That's it!

Lelouch!

The door slid open and C.C. looked up from her position on the floor, the magazine sitting on her lap.

"Calmed down?" the witch asked and blinked in mild surprise when Kallen walked to the wall opposite her and sat down.

"Yes," the pilot answered and rested her head back against the wall. "Lelouch will figure a way to save them, right?"

C.C. licked a finger and turned a glossy page of her reading material, "Probably."

Silence followed her words and Kallen closed her eyes as she ran circles in her brain trying to consider all possible options. She wondered if putting all her trust in Lelouch was the best idea considering that he wasn't even here right now.

C.C. flicked through a few more pages and then adjusted her sitting position by stretching her legs out. The bottom of her feet touched Kallen's and they effectively formed some sort of ankle-height barricade in the corridor with their legs.

Kallen chuckled, "We'll have to let him deal with it, don't we?"

"Why, of course, we did all his work and babysat his men for a whole year. It's about time he did something useful rather than playing house with his fake little brother."

"I guess it's kind of strange. I'm so used to looking after the Black Knights and trying to make sure they're safe and…"

"And make sure they're tucked in beds at night, well-fed and happy," C.C. teased.

"Hmph, you're saying that as if you're implying that I'm the mother of a family."

"Are you not? I'm obviously the father since I bring the money."

"Cough – through illegal means – cough."

"Well, it's not my fault that those drunk Britannians are so easy to scam," commented the witch with a flick of her green hair then continued her previous sentence, "I bring home the money and laze about the house, watching TV on the couch and gluing my eyes on the sports channel – or food channel in my case."

Kallen shook her head and disagreed. "I do all the physical hard work, I should be the father!" She pressed the bottom of her feet against C.C.'s and pushing at them like it was a war of strength.

C.C. paused in her reading, looked at their feet and with a slight grin, applied pressure to her heels. "Oh how very childish," she remarked to the suddenness of their feet wrestling contest but she participated anyway. What else was there to do?

It was like this that the other Black Knights found them.

"C.C.! Kallen! What are we going to do? They're going to execute Toudou-san and…what _are_ you doing?"

"Aa, Zero should have plans laid out for rescuing the others. We're only waiting for orders to arrive." Kallen explained and then turned back to a more important discussion, "Sit down and tell me, who is more like a father figure between C.C. and I?"

"Ha?" Went the Black Knights as they started discussing whether the two girls have finally gone nuts.

C.C. pushed at Kallen's feet with her own, "Hmmm, well Kallen owns such a great figure that no matter how you look at her, she cannot resemble a father."

Kallen spluttered and with a retorted back hotly, "You have longer hair! You should be the more feminine one here!"

The witch tsk-ed, "Oh Kallen, don't be so narrow-minded. Men can have long hair too. Just look at Gao Hai's bodyguard, Li Xingke. He has longer hair than me."

Aa, now there's a comment that sparked much discussion among the Black Knights and one of them finally had the courage to pipe up, "Yeah! I thought he was a chick at first! Do you know how embarrassing it was to walk up to him and say 'Hey baby, you must be a supermodel or something because those legs of yours are damn fiiiiine' only to find out that he's a dude and then…"

And the rest of his words were blocked out by shrieks of laughter and teasing.

And underneath it all, Kallen leant back and smiled, "Leave it all for Zero to fret, huh?"

"Of course, he's the one with the brains after all."

An hour later, Xingke came to the corridor and raised an eyebrow at the large crowd of Black Knights lounging on the floor, effectively blocking everybody's way, arguing over who was the older brother or the family and who was the annoying brat sister.

"Tamaki! Tamaki is the brat sister!"

"No, He's the brother that embarrasses the family!"

"He's the drunk uncle who is far too loud!"

And at the other side of the babble, Kallen and C.C. continued their feet war.

"You're not going to win this feet war thing, you know."

C.C. quirked a brow and laughed, "Really? But pizza gives me super-strength, did you not know that?"

* * *

END OF CHAPTER FIVE

* * *

**I am as confused as you are as to why Lelouch still haven't popped into the fic yet. I keep intending to write him in yet he eludes me each time….and I NEED him in here because it's going to start looking like a KallenxC.C. if he doesn't appear! And we cannot have that happening, can we?**

**Lilly**: (points up) see! update! Now can I haz cookie? (sparkly eyes) Thanks for the review. Hope they're still in character. I think I failed slightly in this one.

**LunAttik**: Sorry for the confusion, I forgot to add a note at the start to say where and when each chapter was happening in. Fixed it now. Thanks for reminding me, for reading this fic which has turned rather uninteresting now and for reviewing all the time. Many thanks.

**KiKi Hayashi**


	6. Some organisation, please?

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Code Geass

**Setting: **After R2 Turn 4

Thank you, Skippy, for beta reading this.

* * *

**Chapter 6 – Some organisation please?

* * *

**

"You! Come back with my pillow! That's mine!"

"Blankets! Anybody else need blankets?"

"I called dibs on that sofa!"

"HA! Full house! Beat that!"

"DRINK! DRINK! DRINK! DRINK!"

The doors hissed closed behind her, blocking out the majority of the noise in the corridor Kallen just left. She walked around the semi-transparent screen that blocked the view of the room from the doorway and was relieved to see C.C. already there, chewing on a slice of pizza and flicking through T.V. channels.

Without even a word of greeting, Kallen collapsed face first onto the sofa and groaned loudly, feeling so tired and overworked that she thought she could hibernate for the rest of the year.

"Long day?" C.C. asked, not even pausing in her channel surfing.

"Tiring day," was Kallen's muffled reply.

"And I assume we didn't get a bedroom and will have to remain here in 'Zero's room' with its pleasant-to sit-on-but-highly-uncomfortable-to-sleep-on sofas?"

Kallen's muffled voice said something again but it was nigh unintelligible. C.C. will just take that as a 'yes,' then.

BZZT

"Today's news…"

BZZT

"Romeo, oh Rom-"

BZZT

"And then the man said he'll-"

Kallen lifted her head from the sofa's cushions, blinked at C.C. blearily, then groaned even louder.

"Yes, Kallen?"

PHSHAP

And C.C. was hit by a flying stack of papers.

"Stop lounging here, and do the rest of the paperwork. Living arrangements don't organise themselves and that long haired Chinese Xing-something listens to you more than he does me."

"Did you glare at him with eyes that threatened to snap him in two?"

Kallen snorted, "As if that could work. He's an entire head taller than me and I'm so tired I couldn't put up much of an argument." She rolled over and draped an arm over her eyes. "I would take fighting a horde of Lancelots over trying to organise living arrangements for Black Knights any day."

C.C. chuckled and bit into her pizza, letting the cheese and tomato sauce combo melt on her tongue.

BZZT

"And if you look here, you'll notice…"

BZZT

"I could have gotten away with it if it weren't for you…"

BZ-

THWAP

"Work, C.C.! Work!" Kallen cried, arming herself with another cushion to throw.

And that was how C.C. was kicked out of the room; armed with a clipboard, pen and stack of papers whilst a mob of Black Knights descended upon her like hungry zombies.

* * *

Thankfully, the hungry zombie-like Black Knights were just hungry for organisation and not brains – though if it really was the latter they were after, C.C. could probably re-spawn her brain enough times to feed them all, but that's a rather crude and disturbing matter so let's not dwell on it.

"Yes, yes, let me get a seat and then you can tell me everything that is wrong," the witch droned, surprised anybody could survive this without an auto-healing body to take the damage. She was sure she must have twisted her ankle four times simply from trying to navigate the crowd of Black Knights and find a place where she could sit down.

After the fifth twist, she sighed loudly and caught the newest Black Knight by the collar, dragging him close enough to make him blush. "You, get me a chair."

"Bu-But…"

"Now," she ordered coldly, then pushed him so that he fell backwards through the crowd.

She grabbed another, the loudest one in the entire crowd, yanking him so close to her face that he turned speechless. "Tamaki."

"Y-Yes?"

"The usual."

The loudmouth gaped for a little while then protested, "Oh no you don't! I'm here to get myself a bedroom and I'm not going to leave to fetch you pizza until I get a…"

But she was already turning away, grabbing somebody else by the collar and issuing more orders.

Tamaki grumbled, scratched his chin, and with a very loud sigh marched, muttering non-stop, to find the nearest phone to dial the number which he still remembered even after a year in prison.

* * *

When Tamaki returned with a stack of pizzas in tow, muttering and complaining about how much hell he went through just to get the witch's pizza and how Chinese guards are so unaccommodating, he almost dropped them all in surprise at what he was seeing.

"A SHORT and organised QUEUE?" the man screamed. "Where did all the people go?"

Sure enough, there was an organised queue containing no more than five people, and at the top of the queue sat C.C. behind a small dining table serving as a desk, a pot of tea by her elbow and a Black Knight holding a plate of little Chinese almond biscuits on her other side.

C.C. looked up from her make-shift desk, raising an eyebrow at his reaction. "Why would they stay here when all their problems are solved?"

"Solved? So quick?"

"Yes, solved. It's always easy to solve things when Kallen has most of them organised already," she explained, dismissing yet another satisfied knight from the queue. Her eyes zeroed in on the pizza boxes like a hawk watching a prey. "About time you got back."

Tamaki grinned, using pizza delivery as an excuse to skip the queue.

"Mm, good," the witch said, opening the box and taking out a slice, leaving almond biscuit guy clueless as to whether he should stay there with the biscuits. "Tamaki?"

"Um, yes?"

The girl tossed him the clipboard of paper and, taking the pizzas from his hands, walked off down the corridor. "Take care of the rest."

"EHHHHH?"

She disappeared round the corner before anybody could stop her.

* * *

She walked around the corridors, casually watching whatever partying the Black Knights were doing and smirked when they paused their celebrations, realizing she was there.

"Carry on," she told them, and they awkwardly resumed whilst she snacked on more pizza.

She stumbled upon Toudou and his group when she was attempting to shove her third empty pizza box into an already packed bin.

"C.C.," they greeted with their curt and respectful nods whilst she blinked at them, her hands balancing a stack of pizzas and her foot stomping down on the pile of rubbish. In all her immortal life, she never would have thought she'd meet their group in such a pose.

"Toudou," she said back, extracting her foot from the bin – well, she tried to anyway, but it seemed somewhat stuck. "Asahina, Chiba….and… Senba?"

The last man grinned, pleased and surprised she recognised him.

"We heard about what happened to Urabe," Toudou said and C.C. could not help but grin. She had forgotten about Toudou's straightforwardness. It was always great to have somebody who goes straight to the point without fancy theatrics.

"He had been a great help and invaluable ally over the year for us," she said. She wasn't lying because, without him, she'll actually have to do her share of work – though they never did share his love for eggs and syrup for breakfast…

The tall man nodded and opened his mouth to say something else, but was interrupted by Tamaki's painful cry of "C.C.! Get back here!"

C.C. glanced down at the bin that was stuck on her foot as Tamaki's screaming got louder and closer. "Well, this is troublesome," she remarked and raised her head to smirk at Toudou's team. "Care you help a girl out?"

* * *

"Ougi."

"Ougi."

"Ougi."

"Ougi."

"Ougi."

Well, that is bizarre! Five serious faces, five serious voices, and all greeting him with his name one at a time. Ougi certainly wasn't expecting that when he came out of his room. "Hello?" was all he could manage before he caught sight of the bin on C.C.'s foot and how the former Japanese Liberation front members seemed to in the process of dismantling the bin like it was a bomb.

"C.C., why do you have a bin on your…?"

C.C. quirked an eyebrow up and licked her fingertips free of tomato sauce before she tried again. "The lid jammed itself around my foot; now be a gentleman and help me out of it."

Baffled, the man replied, "Huh?"

Somewhere in the background Tamaki's screaming could be heard, and Toudou's team glanced at each other and nodded. "C.C.-san, we'll go take care of Tamaki."

"Tamaki needs taking care of?" Ougi asked, starting to worry now. Should he go and rescue the loudmouth? Why does this all sound so sinister and why did those words prompt the image of Toudou cleaving his friend's head off with a katana?

"Of course. Ougi, help me out of this."

Team Toudou stalked off and, now panicking slightly over his friend's safety, Ougi stepped forward and continued the bin dismantling.

* * *

"Aa, Sugimiya and Yoshitaka."

Both men stopped in their tracks and gaped. C.C…. remembered their names?

Ougi, kneeling on the floor in front of C.C. and wrestling with the bin lid stuck on the witch's foot, glanced up with a relieved sigh and shouted, "You two! Help C.C.! I need to go rescue Tamaki!"

"Tamaki needs rescuing?" Yoshitaka asked, glancing at C.C. as if she could answer the question better than Ougi. The girl smirked, amused, and the two new entrants only grew more confused, especially when Ougi dropped C.C.'s foot and ran like somebody's life depended on it.

C.C. glanced at the two and lifted her foot up an inch, wriggling it so that the bin lid whacked the floor loudly. "Well?"

* * *

Sugimiya face-palmed and was awfully tempted to smack his friend across the head. "You just lost, Yoshitaka!"

"Oh? I did?" was the bespectacled man's response as he looked at his cards, then at C.C. and finally at Sugimiya. "I did?"

Sugimiya really did smack him across the head this time. "Yes, you did."

"Aa," the man said dully, more baffled by the cards that were in his hand than the sudden beating he was receiving. "Stop getting distracted with our poker. Keep working on extracting C.C.-san's foot."

"Stop playing poker when you don't know how to play it!"

"She has a brilliant poker face, I can't possibly beat somebody like that," Yoshitaka explained, eyes hidden behind glinting glasses as he collected the cards for shuffling again.

"If I lose, Sugimiya cooks you a pizza and if I win, we get a bedroom."

"Fine with me," drawled the witch whilst Sugimiya tried not to strangle his friend.

"You already lost enough for me to cook her pizzas for an entire week! NO! Don't start another round! Swap with me! YOU work on the bin and I'll play!"

* * *

The doors swished open and C.C. blinked at the darkness before flipping on the lights. "Kallen?" She called as she made her way around the opaque screen.

There was an incomprehensible grunt and C.C. raised an eyebrow at the scene before her eyes. The pilot was sprawled on the sofa with a pillow barely staying under her head and the blankets a complete mess around her feet.

"What would you do if I was a man and walked in here seeing you in such a…" C.C. eyed the pilot up and down, noting the girl's arm stubbornly draped across her eyes as if that would block out everything. "In such a… revealing state of undress?"

Indeed, the straps of Kallen's bra were positively off her shoulders and such a daringly bright shade of peach too. In fact, C.C. imagined she could just about see the upper edge of her panties peeking out over Kallen's shorts.

"Shut up. Tell the men in the corridor to keep it down, I can't sleep with all that noise going on even if it's muffled by the door," Kallen groaned, lifting her arm just enough to peek under it. "Lelo-Zero called - twice. He asked if we got everything organised. You're to give him a full report the next time he calls, which should be in thirty minutes' time."

C.C. picked up Kallen's bunched up blanket and answered Kallen's words as she moved.

"Everything is organised."

She flicked the blanket out with a flap and, starting from Kallen's feet, started covering the girl up.

"We had some pizza."

She tucked the blanket securely around the girl's shoulders, smirking as Kallen slowly drifted back to sleep again.

"We met some old friends."

Kallen yawned and C.C. stood back up straight again, making her way over to the armchair where her Cheese-kun sat.

"I tucked his Q-1 in bed."

Kallen snorted, a step away from dreamland and she still couldn't resist complaining, "Hmph, an awfully uncomfortable bed."

C.C. laughed and leant back to rest her head on the chair's headrest. "And we are no longer the little foster parents of his magnificent Black Knights."

And Kallen fell asleep.

"Hmm, I wonder how I should explain to that Xing-something about the completely dismantled and destroyed bin left in the hallway…"

* * *

END OF CHAPTER 6

* * *

**MyBeloved727:** Um… yeah, still no Lelouch… I blame the chapter, it insists on excluding him. Thanks for the review. I promise Lelouch in next chapter! And Rolo too!

**Mettwe:** Large explosions as a word prompt? Aye, aye! Thanks for reading.

**Passer-by:** I love those kinds of chuckle moments! So I'm glad you liked them too! Many thanks for reading!

**KiKi Hayashi**


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